32° East Arts Centre by New Makers Bureau and Localworks – ADC

Focused on the creation and exploration of contemporary art in Uganda, 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust comprises a gallery, studios, artists’ residences and a resource centre. Phase one, which has been seven years in the making and has included on-site consultation with the 32° East artist community throughout, comprises four artist studios, a library (the only specialist art library in Uganda), restrooms, and a flexible café, which will function as an interim gallery and workspace until phase two completes. The second phase, due to complete at the end of 2024, will include a gallery with a mezzanine, four artist guest rooms, two artist studios, offices, kiosks and a walled courtyard garden. The centre is not only intended to foster critical thinking and experimentation, but also provide a safe space where artists and creatives can investigate their craft. The Trust also hosts publicly-accessible exhibitions, workshops, open forums and festivals.

The building responds to its context in the way that a sensitive sculptor might make a work of art: moulding what’s available nearby, reinterpreting how the materials are used, and making careful and discreet use of what is difficult and precious to find – all with a wonderful sense of play. To quote Bertolt Brecht, “Art is not a mirror held up to society but a hammer with which to shape it.” In this case, 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust is shaping the society in which it sits.

The first experience of the building is from the main street, a highly trafficked, bustling road in Kabalagala. The site is at a lower level, and from the street one looks down at the roofscape of clay tiles and corrugated sheets dotted with trees. The timber roof shingles have a silver tint that contrasts with the surrounding foliage, while the ridgeline creates a datum that distinguishes the structure from the rest of the neighbourhood.

Approached from the north via a narrow road, the building is further squeezed by the perimeter walls of the surrounding properties. The public-facing areas address the main street, while the more private spaces are arranged around a courtyard to the rear where it is quieter and more serene. Completion of the courtyard will mark the second phase of construction. The angled entrance forms a welcoming gesture that is augmented by the café; a pleasing presence in an otherwise monotonous residential area.

The project makes use of its sloping site to create different levels of privacy. On the southern façade, inside the building, the protruding windows have low sills, which can be used for sitting on and as shelf space. On the street frontage, the sills are just above shoulder height making it difficult for passers-by to look in.

London-based practice New Makers Bureau is notable for its socially and environmentally conscious design approach. This project’s vertical ordering of materials with a lower stone datum and brick configuration above is inspired by the contrasting characters of Alvar Aalto’s Muuratsalo Experimental House in Finland – a light and playful investigation into brick and the ways in which it can be arranged – and the heavy, grounded, rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia, which date from the 12th and 13th centuries.

The project was built using low-tech construction, with a focus on the life cycle of materials and waste – concerns rooted in Uganda’s mainstream construction processes. Each material was chosen with care and consideration to reduce the carbon footprint, ensure durability and longevity, and minimise waste. The selection process began with locally sourced and shaped sandstone, which prevents damp and neatly reflects the materiality of the neighbourhood’s perimeter walls. Soil from the excavation work was used for the rammed earth superstructure. Rammed earth is one of the region’s oldest and most widely used construction techniques. Kampala-based practice Localworks adopted this technique, applying contemporary processes to ensure a circular design approach.

Timber for the formwork and scaffolding was sourced from certified forests, then reused as shingles. A hydraulic press was adapted to fit the formwork, and a combination of damp soil, lime and sand was manually mixed before being compacted into 150-200mm layers that form the horizontal strata of the façade. Inspecting the walls at close quarters, one is able to examine the ‘freckles’ on the building’s skin.

A similar mix of soil, lime and sand was used to make the stabilised soil bricks. A mini production line was developed insitu with the site itself providing the raw material. Soil extracted from the excavation work was sieved, stored and compressed into bricks, before being passed into the hands of a patient mason who completed the brick’s life cycle.

There are three main brick bonds used on the project: a double-stretcher bond for partitioning and enclosure, a honeycomb brick bond for lighting and ventilation, and a diamond-shaped bond that tessellates the façades in homage to Alvar Aalto’s house.

The plan follows the shape of the site, with the protruding café forming an edge to the courtyard and announcing the entrance. A colonnade on the north façade is made up of ten columns clad with clay tiles. Inside, the floors are lime rendered and made in a way that leaves the imprint of imperfection on the surface. Soft and smooth, they offer an invitation to walk barefoot.

If the interior was formed for feet, the walkways are made for shoes. Here, the site-cut slate utilises very thin joints, giving the impression of dry stacked stonework. Conceived as a meditation space between the studios and the exterior, the walkway fosters chance meetings for the artists moving between studios. A pair of insitu benches provide an opportunity to rest, look into the courtyard and reflect.

For the signature overhanging roof, the architect had to come up with a solution that would reduce the exposure of the walls to intense sunshine and heavy rainfall. The ridgeline runs diagonal to the building facilitating uniform rainwater collection along its edges.

A rooflight enables a ribbon of daylight to trace its path along the floor and walls; a connection between inside and outside, and to the passage of time. The roof also slopes from west-to-east, allowing rooms to reduce in scale from the most public to the most intimate spaces. The effect of the undulating trusses as seen from under the walkway is mesmerising.

Thick walls keep the building cool throughout the day and isolate the rooms acoustically. Each studio has one large south-facing bay window with a view into the neighbouring gardens. The steel windows have timber shutters and can be completely closed off. Light is brought into studios from a clerestory window further supplemented by the rooflight. Ventilation is achieved using honeycomb brickwork, while the doors facilitate passive cooling of the space, which is essential in February when temperatures average 30°C.

From the outside, the building blends into the earth from which it is made. It looks like a carefully crafted extension to the dirt surface access road on which it sits. There is a distinctive aura to the scheme that puts it in balance with its context. It can best be described by two contrasting experiences. The first is the feeling one gets from wearing brand new shoes; the shoes feel delightfully new and too precious to be worn, and in need of being ‘broken in’. It’s a different feeling to slipping on your go-to pair of shoes on a Sunday morning, when you would not mind the world judging you. This building beautifully straddles both worlds. It balances the delight of the new with the comfort of the old. It’s only been a couple of months since it was inaugurated but in that time it has settled into its surroundings, prompting one of the neighbours to comment, “I saw this building going up, but it feels like it was here even before I arrived.”